Hoisington, KS

Hoisington grew out of a railroad decision on the Barton County prairie. The town company formed in 1886 to draw the Kansas and Colorado Railroad, and the line soon made Hoisington a division point with a depot, shops, and Lake Barton for locomotive water. That rail history still frames the place, but the landscape around it is just as important: Blood Creek runs south of town toward Cheyenne Bottoms, and Hoisington is known as a gateway to the large wetland complex. The city’s story also includes oil, farming, and the 2001 F4 tornado that hit during high-school prom night, one of those local events people remember by exactly where they were.